Yoorana Gunya Policies and Procedures

Patient Privacy and Confidentiality

Yoorana Gunya’s practice is committed to providing quality health care and services. Our practice collects your personal information to ensure you receive the highest standard of care. We are committed to protecting the privacy of your patient information and to handling your personal information in a responsible manner in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (cth), the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012, the Australian Privacy Principles and relevant State and Territory Privacy Legislation. We collect information that is necessary and relevant to provide you with medical care and treatment and manage our medical practice. Information may be collected for other sources including specialists, pathologists, hospitals, allied health professionals and radiologists.

This information may be collected by medical and non-medical staff. Your information is securely stored on our computer medical records system. All information is password protected, and access is granted to users as per their permissions of their roles. We are required by law to retain medical records for certain periods of time depending on your age at the time we provide the service.

In emergency situations, we may need to collect information from your relatives or friends. We require patients to sign a consent form if they require a third party to act on their behalf. Reception are able to provide this form to patients and this will be at the discretion of the clinician to decide whether this is appropriate or whether more information is required prior to sharing patient information medicolegally.

Complaints

In our practice, customer satisfaction and patient experiences are important to us. Patients have the right to complain or provide feedback if they feel the service they received did not meet their expectations.

We believe most complaints can be responded to and resolved at the time the patient makes them known to us. Patient feedback is a valuable source of feedback for our services and for our continuous quality improvement to ensure we provide the best possible health care.

Patients can provide us with a written complaint which will be registered in our complaints register or patients can scan the QR code displayed in the reception area to create a feedback ticket which will register directly in our Quality Register.

When a complaint is received, the complaint will be investigated by the appropriate manager and handled appropriately. The person responsible will discuss the complaint with the parties involved and provide a response to the patient.

Appointments Policy

Our patient scheduling system is flexible to accommodate patients with urgent, non-urgent, complex and planned chronic care, and preventative needs. We do not take appointment bookings via social media or email or provide any other patients information on these platforms.

Patients who fail to attend (FTA) their appointment will be mailed a letter and there will be a charge of $10 that must be paid prior to the patient being able to book another appointment. This policy is to monitor and manage fail to attend appointments (no shows) and is necessary to ensure that we are able to provide timely access for all patients to our nurses and general practitioners. 

Yoorana Gunya has a reminder system that sends patients a text to remind them of their appointment. If you do not wish to be a part of the reminder system, please let our reception team know.

Communication Policy

Our practice allows patients to obtain timely advice and information about their clinical care via the telephone consult with a GP.

There is no voicemail system and patients are unable to leave voice messages. Patients have the abillity to leave messages with reception for a return call from the appropriate staff member. Patient’s names are not openly stated over the phone within earshot of other patients or visitors. All practice staff are familiar with each GP’s policy for returning phone calls.

Patients are able to obtain advice or information related to their care or appointment reminders by electronic means. Electronic communication includes: fax, email, SMS and phone.

When an email message is sent or received in the course of a persons duties, that message is business communication and therefore constitutes an official record.

After Hours Arrangements / Emergencies 

If you require after hours care or emergency assistance please go to Forbes Hospital Emergency Department located on Elgin Street, Forbes. If you require emergency assistance and an ambulance please call 000.